I just finished reading Hedda Gabler (1891), a play written by Henrik Ibsen and translated by Una Ellis-Fermor.

The play elicited one of the strongest reactions I’ve had in a reading experience in recent memory. I found myself shouting out loud at a few points, so agitated was I by the circumstances of the play and the characters’ actions. Ibsen deftly crafts the personalities of the principle characters, using nothing more than dialogue. The way characters’ motivations are revealed makes this a psychologically piercing tragedy.

In addition to being a quite literal example of Chekhov’s famous maxim, Hedda Gabler is a powerful study in personality and manipulation.

“The journey will go on for a long time yet. I have only come to a stopping-place on the way.”